"Spring" Break

Saturday marks the first day of our two week break! After the past three weeks of insanely trying to tackle all of my assignments(why am I taking almost the maximum amount of credits, why??) am I definitely ready for a break. My friend Katelyn and I decided to travel all across the South Island. I thought I would let you have a peek of all we are planning, just so no body panics when they don't hear from me for two weeks. 

Katelyn and I have been planning this for the past month. We've had people drop out of our group, and add too it, then decide they only want to do part of it. We've poured over bus companies, and schedules, hostel recommendation, things to do, and predicted weather. We've completely redone the entire trip twice. And finally, finally I think we are ready for this. 

Saturday we start our adventure by heading down to Oamaru. We spend the night there then head down to Dunedin to visit some friends at Otago University. We stay two nights with friends before heading back up to Christchurch. I'll be back in Christchurch Wednesday night, so hopefully I can give a quick update, and maybe wash some laundry? Then it's back on the road, well actually the train(!!) for an day/night in Kaikoura. Then we head up to wine country, it's another train(!!) ride to Blenheim where we shall spend a day biking to different wineries for wine tastings.We leave Blenheim Friday night in order to get to Nelson by noon Saturday. At Nelson we meet up with some of the other Arcadia students for a weekend in Abel Tasman National Park. Where we shall hike, kayak and have a wonderful time! 

We finish at Abel Tasman Monday afternoon. This completely messes up any sort of bus schedule, so we'll have to spend another night at Nelson before taking one hugely long bus trip all the way down to Franz Josef. However, Franz Josef is one of the things I've been looking forward too the most- we're doing an all day glacier hike! We'll  be at Franz Josef for two nights before heading down to Wanaka for the last two days of our trip.

There's our trip mapped out, each color is a different journey, black dots are the towns we are stopping at, and the star is Christchurch.

August 21: Oamaru

August 22: Oamaru/Dunedin

August 23: Dunedin

August 24: Dunedin/ChCh

August 25: ChCh/ Kaikoura

August 26: Kaikoura/ Blenheim

August 27: Blenheim/Nelson

August 28-30: Abel Tasmen

August 31: Nelson/Franz Josef

Sept. 1: Franz Josef

Sept. 2 Franz Josef/Wanaka

Sept. 3 Wanaka

Sept. 4 Wanaka/ChCh

Yes, I deliberately left most of the juicy details out of this itinerary. Think of it as a surprise! I won't have my computer with me so I won't be able to update. However, I will be keeping a journal, and taking more pictures then necessary-per usual. I will be updating asap once I get back. 

Kia Ora! Have a wonderful two weeks!